It was only a few minutes after 8 p.m. when the Great Dane, a brew pub within sight of the state capitol’s illuminated eggshell dome, learned that Barack Obama was leading in Wisconsin. Soon after that, the networks called the state for Obama, and Gov. Jim Doyle mounted the stage to address his Wisconsin victory party. Obama was still speaking in Houston, but the bartenders turned the sound off, and Doyle stepped to the microphone.
Doyle was backdropped by University of Wisconsin students sporting red “Badgers for Obama” T-shirts, all bearing the candidate’s face. At his side was Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who triumphantly declared that Obama had carried the campus 10-to-1. Everyone had expected Obama to run up the score at the famously liberal school, but as the results rolled in, it became clear that Obama had won counties all across the state, from Lake Michigan to Lake Superior.